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30-06-2013

ARA News

QAMISHLI, Syria − On Saturday, the armed forces of the ‘Popular Protection Units’ (YPG) −the armed wing of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party in Syria (PYD)− attacked a group of protesters in the northeastern city of Qamishli.

The protest, organized by a number of Kurdish activists, was intended to show solidarity with the residents of the city of Amude −where the same armed forces have opened fire against demonstrators and killed four of them earlier this week.

According to ARA News‘ reporter in Qamishli, the YPG forces’ crackdown on protesters resulted in dozens of injuries as the YPG used truncheons and knifes during the attack, in an attempt to intimidate the anti-PYD Kurdish activists in Qamishli and in the rest of the Kurdish area in Syria.

The YPG has also attacked the Kurdish journalist Ferhad Ehme in Qamishli as he was reporting to the Kurdish TV of Gali Kurdistan. According to ARA News‘ reporter, Ehme was seriously injured after being hardly beaten by few fighters from the YPG.

The YPG forces launched an extensive arrest campaign in Qamishli on Saturday. Many Kurdish civil activists were detained and others have reportedly hidden themselves to avoid arrest.

On Thursday evening, activists reported that the YPG forces have opened fire against the demonstrators in Amude city, killing four of them −Nadir Khallo, Saad Seyda, Rezan Qarno and Shekhi Ali− and injuring dozens. While the YPG’s political leadership, the PYD, reported that one of its fighters was killed by some “mercenaries” linked to the opposition. The killing of the four demonstrators and injuring others led the majority of the Kurdish activists and politicians to condemn the YPG’s practices against their peers in Amude city.